Liesbeth Bik

Liesbeth Bik has collaborated with Jos van der Pol since 1995 as the artists’ duo Bik Van der Pol. They see art as a tool for exploring and reflecting on social and political changes in a constantly evolving landscape. In their ongoing exploration of the meaning of ‘making public’ and ‘public making’, they focus on the role and visibility of knowledge in the public domain and utilise every opportunity that art offers to create different visions and experiences that will spur the imagination and galvanise dialogue.

Bik van der Pol co-initiated the Duende artists’ initiative in Rotterdam and (from 1999 onwards) the Nomads & Residents collective in New York. They have worked with others to set up the School of Missing Studies (2003), serve as advisers at the Jan van Eyck Academie, and teach at MIT (2016). Liesbeth Bik is also a core tutor at the Piet Zwart Institute. Their work has been exhibited in museums and art institutes around the world, most recently at the Pérez Art Museum Miami and The Power Plant in Toronto (2015). Their work featured at the Istanbul (2007), Mercosul (2013), São Paulo (2014), Jakarta (2015), and Gwangju and Seoul (2016) Bienniales. They have developed works for Creative Time and Frieze Projects (2011). In 2010, they won the prestigious Enel Contemporanea Award (Museum of Contemporary Art in Rome), and in 2014 received the Hendrik Chabot Award. They live and work in Rotterdam.